Outcry over WA ALP uranium mining ban

Premier Alan Carpenter's pledge to impose a legislative ban on uranium mining has prompted an outcry from mining lobby groups and the traditional owners who hold land rights over the major Kintyre uranium deposit.

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Comments

Carpenter has no idea. Not only will Nuclear power help the environment but we are missing out on thousands of jobs and Billions of dollars for our economy.
Mr Carpenter incase you haven't seen things are starting to slow down in WA

How can this govt be taken seriously in satisfying the global need for energy whilst minimising the impact to the environment.
Nuclear power is a cleaner energy source.
From what I saw in Bejing there is an immediate need, denying the mining of uranium is being part of the problem not the solution.
Keep the politics out of it!

Thankyou Mr. Carpenter, at last I know which way to vote - for your opposition!! Hasn't anybody in the ALP heard about the increasing global shortage of oil, and the effects of CO2 production on this planet's atmosphere and climate??

For pure Economic reasons I agree with Mr Carpenter.
There is expected to be 59 years of global uranium stocks left at today's current rate of consumption...
(http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/ns_diagrams/027ns_005image2.jpg)
Let's let all the other nations (and states) exhaust their supplies and only then start to dig the stuff out of the ground. Imagine how much it would be worth then.
Surely our natural resource will be worth much more to us (and the Martu people) if we have the patience to wait and supply the Uranium when it is a rare mineral.
How refreshing to have a premier with a sense of perspective.

Mr Carpenter SAYS vote YES for DIRTY COAL..CLIMATE CHANGE..CARBON TAX..GLOBAL WARMING.. HIGH UNEMPLOYEMENT END OF THE WORLD.
and vote NO for URANIUM MINING.. CLEAN ENERGY.. LOW UNEMPLOYEMENT AND SAVE THE WORLD WITH NO GLOBAL WARMING NO CARBON TAX...

Yet another example of flying in the face of reason.
To enable WA to be free of carbon for 20 years is compelling evidence of just how misguided the current Govt is?
\Vote with your feet to overturn this stupid decision.
Pip

Nuclear power is not an answer to global warming. alternative energy is. conservation of energy is.
At eight out of nine stages in the nuclear chain, greenhouses gases are emitted. the only bit which doesn't add to global warming is the boiling water in the turbine bit. But mining, milling, transport, processing, re-processing, enrichment, transport (again), de-commissioning are all contributors to harmful emmissions.
However, two other major problems still exist for the nuclear industry: ;One is the undisputed link to nuclear weapons - Australia selling uranium to nuclear weapons states (declared or undeclared, members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or not) frees up some of their uranium for nuclear weapons programmes, despite any conditions which australia might apply.
Secondly, and most importantly, there is the unsolved question of waste. Contaminated, radioactive waste, which is a dreadful legacy to be leaving to our children and their children. there is already a large volume of high level waste which no country anywhere knows how to store safely for the thousands of years of its contaminated life.
We don't need to add to this pile.
We do need legislation to enshrine the ALP's ban on uranium mining. The wannabe uranium miners are meerely mining the stock exchange at the moment, and they deserve to get thier fingers burnt.
Jo Vallentine.

Typical Labour mentality!! There is no reason not to mine uranium. If they are worried about nuclear weapons, China and India have nuclear weapons!! Please WA voters, make your vote count and get rid of this backward thinking government.

You hear a lot about Australia providing a "model for larger nations to follow to reduce their greenhouse emissions."
A model for who I wonder? The Chinese, Indians, Americans, Russians and Europeans all have nuclear power already. It is key to their emission reduction strategies.
What are we trying to prove by not exporting uranium when our coal exports are doing a LOT more damage.

This stuff should stay in the ground. It is only short sighted people with a financial interest in the mining royalties that would agree with digging this stuff up. There are many other ways of reducing the carbon emmisions with out introducing a toxin far worse. I just hope that the state legislation can not be over ruled by the federal government. The WA Government should financialy support alternative technologies that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. These issues don't have to be multi billion dollar projects that deal with it at town or state level, small individual changes the are supported by the government. would have a huge impact on our environment and our quality of life.

Carpenter has publicly displayed his complete ignorance of this important future energy source.
He keeps going on about the dangers of uranium mining (displaying complete ignorance of mining uranium) and his view that nuclear energy is declining in all other countries. Even citing China as going away from nuclear energy, the man clearly has no idea at all and is being fed misinformation.
Countries such as the USA, China, UK, Africa, India and Europe generally are significantly expanding Nuclear power plants as the main future energy source. Not decreasing as Carpenter publicly stated.
This will be damaging to both the WA and Australian economies, as overseas companies lose trust in government policy making.
I trust logic will prevail over this subjective and poorly thought out policy decision.

Yes, Carpenter adopts a "Top Down" policy approach to uranium. First decide what the outcome must be (in this case in order to appease the environmentalists and win an election). Second conjure up "reasons" why the policy is the right one. And third, enlist his PR machine to spread rumours and fear in order to support his position.
He's a fraud, and the voters of WA must expose him as such.

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